Stream: Suzanne Santo, ‘Ghost in My Bed’

Kevin Bronson on June 7th, 2017

0

For more than a decade now, singer, violinist, banjoist and possessor of great moxie Suzanne Santo has worked with Ben Jaffe in the duo HoneyHoney, a collaboration that has yielded three albums of sweet/tart Americana. Santo is striking out on her own with “Ruby Red.” The solo album is the first for Santo, and she and Jaffe (who also has a solo project coming this fall) point out on Facebook that “our rockchild HoneyHoney is alive and well” and that the solo work finds homes for songs “so the bustlin’ manor that is HH can be renovated for the next rager.” Producer Butch Walker worked with the Ohio-bred Santo on “Ruby Red,” a collection of soulful Americana and Southern gothic rock. And, says Walker: “This record is so fucking sexy, I can’t deal.”

Says Santo: “I think I started writing songs for this record long before I realized that I was writing songs for this record. I’ve identified with a collaboration for so long that the thought of taking a leap into the depths of my own music, and having no idea what that would look like, definitely came as a shock. It was incredible to work with Butch. He facilitates a great time and an artistic environment that orbits solely around what’s best for the song … It liberated and enabled me to work in a way that I never knew I was capable of.” The first single “Ghost in My Bed” feels like a road-trip anthem, motoring down the highway of memories with a cup of cold coffee and the aftertaste of regret. “Ruby Red” is out Aug. 11.

||| Stream: “Ghost in My Bed”